User Manual

Quick Reference: 8pre Rear Panel
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1. The two ADAT optical (“lightpipe”) ports in the top row
provide eight channels of digital input and output at 44.1 and 48 kHz. At the 2x sample rates (88.2 or 96 kHz), the top row provides channels 1-4 (in and out) and the bottom row provides channels 5-8 (in and out). When operating the optical ports at a 2x sample rate, be sure to choose either Type I or Type II operation, as explained in item 2. on the previous page. When the 8pre is connected to a computer, these optical ports provide digital input and output to and from the computer. When the 8pre is not connected directly to a computer (via FireWire), the optical input is disabled and the eight optical output channels mirror any incoming signal on the 8pre’s eight XLR/TRS combo jack analog inputs. By connecting the 8pre to another device, such as another ADAT-optical equipped interface or a digital mixer, you add an additional eight mic inputs to your system. When the 8pre is slaving to its optical input, it resolves to the input in the top row, even when operating at the 2x sample rates (88.2 or 96 kHz).
When the 8pre is operating at the 1x sample rates (44.1 or 48 kHz), the optical output in the bottom row mirrors the 8-channel optical output in the top row, allowing you to send the 8pre optical output to two different destinations in your studio, if needed.
2. Connect a MIDI device here using standard MIDI cables.
Connect the 8pre’s MIDI OUT port to the MIDI IN port on the other device. Conversely, connect the 8pre’s MIDI IN port to the MIDI OUT port on the other device. You can connect differ- ent devices to each port, such as a controller device to the IN port and a sound module to the OUT port. You can also daisy- chain MIDI devices, but be sure to manage their MIDI channels (so that they don’t receive or transmit on the same channel).
3. Connect the 8pre to the computer here using the standard
1394 FireWire cable provided with your 8pre. Use the second FireWire port to daisy-chain up to four MOTU FireWire audio interfaces to a single FireWire bus. You can also connect other FireWire devices to daisy-chain them to the computer, with the computer serving as the Firewire host.
4. These two balanced, quarter-inch jacks serve as the 8pre’s
main outputs. You can connect them to a set of powered studio monitors and then control the volume from the front panel volume knob. To hear disk tracks in your audio software on these main outs, assign the disk tracks (and master fader) to these main outs (
Main Out 1-2
). You can also use CueMix
DSP to monitor live 8pre inputs here as well.
5. These eight XLR/TRS combo jack accepts either a mic cable or
a cable with a quarter-inch plug. Both the low-impedance XLR jack and the high-impedance TRS jack are equipped with 40 dB of front-panel trim control. Each XLR (mic) input can be supplied with 48V phantom power or -20 dB pad via its corre- sponding front-panel switches.
!8pre Manual/Mac Page 6 Tuesday, October 12, 2010 5:52 PM